Summertime

Summertime Hey folks. Ive been busy, which still isnt a good excuse for not having posted anything substantial in something like seven months. I kept procrastinating about blogging throughout the majority of the second semester, coming up with some ideas but telling myself there would more time during the summer to sit down and write them out. Two semesters in, and the information on the banner above is already outdated. I declared Course 9, Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Having lost interest in economics, I figured Id like to major in a life science. Biology is boring in my humblest of opinions, but the mind has always been fascinating to me. This is one of the greatest draws of MITI came here kind-of-but-not-really-sure I wanted one major, but with so many fantastic departments its hard to go wrong. Still, I feel fairly confident in my declaration of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. The departmental requirements are full of classes I would like to take as electives no matter what my major turns out to be. I figured this was a fair benchmark for which course to declare, so Brain and Cog it is. A month or so before the end of the semester I sent an employment application to Cataldo EMS, a private ambulance service for which many MIT-EMS EMTs work. They tend to hire us, they pay, and most of all, they are an urban 9-1-1 contractor. Translated, this means lots of good experience. Possessing all of three months and 60 hours of experience, I was doubtful that theyd hire me. They asked me to come in for pre-employment testing, consisting of a multiple choice exam, mapbook reading assessment, and a practical skills portion. Excited to have gotten that far in the process, I was quite disheartened to receive their decision. Basically, they said that though I passed all the requirements, they didnt have enough open shifts available to justify hiring new EMTs. All other MIT EMTs got the same messagevictims of the economic downturn? Before summer began, I realized I should probably have a backup plan if this EMS business didnt work out. So that I wouldnt have a completely useless summer, I sent emails to see about UROP openings. I had two interviews, one for a UROP in course 14 (Economics) and another in course 9. I didnt get the economics position, but I was offered a spot with the Brain and Cog project. Im glad I was, too. Otherwise Id have nothing to do this summer. The research deals with developmental psychology. Through a couple of different experiments, were trying to shed some light on how infants become social. In one test, we show babies (age 1-2 years) videos of Mr. Rogers and Alton Brown on an eyetracking monitor. The videos are exploratory, in which someone is talking about and describing an object. We want to see at what age babies learn to look at social interactions the way we do: when they start looking at faces when people address them, and objects when people are describing them. Another test also involves the eyetracking monitor, this time in a language acquisition study. In this experiment, we show the children a series slides, each with two images. As these images are shown, two made-up words are stated. The video cycles through different combinations of images and words such that you can figure out which word corresponds to which image. At the end, two images are displayed again, but this time only one word (corresponding to one of the images on the screen) is repeated. We want to see if infants this young can determine which words mean which picture. The hope is that in the testing portion at the end they will look preferentially at the correct image. The last study Im working on is a bit different. For this experiment, Ive built two boxes. Each has two big buttons, and when both are pressed, the box lights up and makes noise. With the child (3-5 years old this time) on the other end of the table, Ill say something like Check out my cool toy! Look what happens when I do this! [press buttons]. Then Ill ask the kid what he thinks will happen if I only press one button. Then with the other box, Ill accidentally drop a pencil and accidentally trigger the effect on my way down to pick it up. Then Ill ask the same question again. The aim here is to see if there is a difference in the childrens responses in the goal-oriented and accidental conditions. Our hypothesis is that the kids will pick up on social cues and be more likely to say that both buttons are required in the goal condition, and that only one is required for the second. This is the project that I have the most ownership overIve built the boxes myself, demonstrated the exper iment for the leaders at the Museum of Science where we will be testing, and in the next week or so, I will start collecting data. So far, to be honest, the job has been a bit tedious. Im glad to get my feet wet with research, though. And in a way, it was a mixed blessing to not be hired by the EMS. My summer is productive, but not too taxing. I can still relax and recharge after the first year at MIT. Im doing the research for academic credit, so pocket change is a bit hard to come by. But otherwise my Cataldo pre-employment testing results stand for a year, so I dont have to take the exam again if I want to apply for work next summer. To keep my options open for next summer, Ive gained certification with the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians by passing a written exam. This doesnt mean too much in and of itself, but it makes getting EMT certification in Texas only a matter of paperwork (no more tests!). Also, I get a cool patch for my uniform. Perhaps next summer Ill work for an ambulance company back home in Houston to get experience, get paid, and get by without a summer housing bill. So what are you guys up to this summer? I havent been keeping up with the discussions in the Class of 2013 Facebook group, but if you have any questions about the move to college, feel free to ask below and Ill give you my two cents. Summertime School is out and many times high school students struggle to find things to do with their time. I know that after such a long school year with tough academic classes, sports, extracurricular activities, and whole bunch of other responsibilities, its tempting to just veg out on the couch and watch Gossip Girl, Degreassi, and OchoCinco: The Ultimate Catch reruns for 14 hours a day. You could easily become a Facebook addict and surf your friends profile pages for 14 hours each day. (I know, I feel like this sometimes too.) But dont fall victim to the TV or FB this summer! You can resist. You have many more options of things to do with your time than you realize! One of the things that I have learned about MIT students is that (generally speaking) they are good stewards of their time. Students here work hard and play hard. During the year, they certainly get their fare share of study time, but they also do everything from taking cool photos to attempting to break the world record for mattress dominoes. The same philosophy holds true during the summertime as well. Over the summer, MIT students do a whole host of interesting things with their time. (You dont need links to find out what types of cool things students are doing, just go back and check out some of the recent blog posts.) But they didnt start making good use of their summer months when they came to MIT, it started way back in high school. So here are a few suggestions of things that you could do with your time this summer. From me to you. Why? Because I care. ________________________________________ 1. A Summer Program â€" Summer Programs are a great way to make good use of your time. You can investigate an interest, develop a new skill, or learn about different careers. Students always have a really great time meeting new people and doing exciting projects with other motivated kids. Here are a few that I know about; RSI , WTP , MITES , Duke TIP , The Bridge Program, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth , and many, many more.. And don’t underestimate the importance of being away from home and on your own for a few weeks. It’s a good thing to know that you can take care of yourself in a new environment without Mom and Dad around to solve every challenge that may come up. You can do it! Go ahead and fly little birdie! 2. Travel (Locally or not so locally) â€" In today’s world of work, you will probably not have just one job in the same location for 35 or 40 years. It is more likely that you will have a bunch of different types of jobs in a variety of places. You will certainly have the choice of working in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, or San Francisco. But if you have the skills to pay the bills, you will also be able to have international options like London, Mumbai, or Shanghai. Getting a chance to see what different places have to offer can open your mind to new opportunities (and it plants the seed for study abroad)! 3. College Road Trip! Summertime is a great time to visit colleges. You can go to information sessions, tour the campus, and even though most students will not be on campus, you can still get a general feel for what the place might be like when it is fully occupied. Start with campuses that are close to you and then venture further out. Visiting colleges over the summer is a smart move. 4. Get a Summer Job Camp counselor, grocery bagger, retail, restaurants, lifeguard.It really doesnt matter the nature of the job, as long as you get a chance to begin learning what it means to have the responsibility of having people depend on you in a professional setting. Its also nice to learn what it means to earn your own money. 5. Get an internship! You aren’t going to be a high school student forever! One day you too will have the joy of paying bills, taxes, and have a mortgage (this is sarcasm). In order to do these things you will have a job. With luck, it will be a job that you enjoy. Start now and get a sneak peak into what an engineer (or any other profession of interest for you) does on a daily basis. If there is an official internship program where you get paid, GREAT!!!! If not, don’t be afraid to do an internship for free. The experience that you get is well worth the investment of your time even if you aren’t getting paid. 6. Take a class I know, I know…. Just hear me out. Just because the school year has ended, doesn’t mean that learning has to stop! Summertime is a great time for you to take a class in something that you have been interested, but may not have had the actual time during the school year. It’s also a time to take a class to get ahead for the upcoming school year. Your local community college is a great place to find fun classes. But if cash is a little short or you don’t have transportation to the community college, there is always OCW! 7. Join your library’s book club â€" Over the summer, your local librarian should be your new BFF. Reading is a great way to learn about the world, while learning about yourself. AND you can read one of my favorite books of all time, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, by MITs own Junot Diaz. 8. Write a letter (and mail it!!!) â€" In this day and age of instant messaging, texts, e-mails, and cell phones, the art of writing a letter has been virtually abandoned. Go ahead and test your penmanship out. If you’re lucky, you may even receive a response back. When you’re in college it’s always nice to get a letter from home reminding you that people are thinking about you. Sometimes the letters even have pizza money enclosed ;-) So what are YOU doing with your time this year? (Aside from reading the MIT blogs.) Let me know in the comments. Summertime I am often asked what we admissions officers do during the summer. Frequently, people assume that we get a several month long summer vacation like students do. But thats not the case; admissions is a year-round job, and while were not doing any admitting over the summer, there is still a lot of work to be done. So, you may ask, what are we up to right now? Preparing for the influx of summer visitors. Beginning in a few weeks, crowds for our twice-daily information sessions and tours should start getting quite large (I, for one, really like the larger crowds!). As a result, well move the information sessions out of the admissions reception area and into a larger space in the MIT Student Center. Also, during the summer we can highlight a dorm room on the campus tour, so were working on that. Ill do a series of entries quite soon about how to visit MIT this summer. Preparing for our nationwide meetings this fall. The admissions staff will be visiting 70 US cities this September and October, from Cambridge to Honolulu. Now, were arranging our itineraries, finding rooms in which to hold our meetings, networking with the Educational Counselors (ECs) in these cities, and more. Getting to travel the country, to come to you, is one of my favorite parts of the year. Developing new publications and websites. During the Admissions season, it is difficult to focus on large-scale initiatives such as publications, so development is largely done during the off season. As Ben has noted, we are currently working on a redesign of our viewbook, as well as Admissions Blogs v2.0 and some snazzy new stuff on MyMIT. Wrapping up the Class of 2009 and preparing for the Class of 2010. Now is the time when we can take a step back from the intensity of admitting the freshman class to get the big picture view, to evaluate and understand the past year. Then, we begin laying the groundwork for the Class of 2010, so that when the applications begin coming in, were more than ready. This big picture thinking also includes attending conferences to hear ideas from our admissions and college counseling colleagues. Youve already read that Ben, Marilee and I attended a regional conference for New England, and well be attending some other conferences in the months to come. For example, next month Ill be attending a conference about international student admissions. And, yes taking a little vacation. Because the summer has less in the way of hard deadlines, we can afford to take some time off. As for me, Ill be spending about three weeks in Southeast Asia at the end of July/beginning of August. What are you up to this summer? Anything interesting?